The present invention generally relates to secure electronic data transfer and, more particularly, to a keyless challenge and response system.
Cryptography can be used to facilitate the transfer of confidential messages (such as a password or credit card number) between two parties over an insecure communication channel (such as the Internet) that would otherwise allow the messages to be intercepted and decoded. This generally involves providing the construction of an encryption scheme (at the sender's end) that uses some encryption keys to transform the messages into a coded or cipher text, and a decryption scheme (at the receiver's end) to recover the original message from the cipher text, again using some decryption keys. The decryption scheme uses the inverse of the encryption scheme, in order to recover the message correctly. By coding the message, a party eavesdropping on the unsecure channel will not be able to understand the message, even though he will be able to listen to it. All cryptosystems have three potential parties, a sender of the message, a receiver for whom it is intended, and an eavesdropper.